Oral history assignment.  Due Week 5 February 28.

Do an Oral History interview with a close family member (or, if this is not possible, a friend) who is an immigrant.  The interview should focus on why the person, or their family, decided to emigrate, how they chose the United States and New York City, the migration experience, and their experiences in their neighborhoods and with their ethnic community. You should tape the interview if possible so that you have quotes to use in your paper, or else take very good notes. You will need to write a 5-6 page narrative based on the interview: summarize the experience of your interviewee, using quotes from the interview to illustrate important ideas; you should refer to any readings or concepts that explain their experience. Then reflect on how the interview went from your perspective, for both technique and content (‘I got all the questions in,’ or ‘I wish I had asked such and such,’ or “I learned something I had never known about xxx’, or ‘I didn’t handle subject yyy well, or ‘I could have learned zzz about myself,’ etc.)

Read  “Making Sense of oral History” by Linda Shopes

(http://historymatters.gmu.edu/mse/oral/). You should read the essay to get a better understanding of what oral history—which is created by interviews—is all about.  If you have tape the interview, consider playing a small snippet for the class.

1. Aim for an interview of at least 30 minutes.

2. Tape record if possible. If your interviewee is not comfortable, take notes as well as you can during the interview and then review and amplify them after the interview.

3. Explain that this is class assignment that is part of your course on the immigration history of NYC: that you are interviewing people to learn more about the recent experience of immigrants in NYC, to learn how to interview properly, and as practice for the class neighborhood project.

4. Suggested questions to guide the interview posted on Bb.